The present invention is directed to a stowable fold out seat assembly for a passenger carrying vehicle with a passenger carrying boat being used as an illustrative example. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bench seat boat assembly that can be folded and stored against a supporting structure illustrated as a bulkhead of a boat, when not in use and whose seat unit can be detached and removed from the bulkhead when not needed.
As the boat industry has been more family oriented, multi-purpose seating apparatus has become increasingly important. It is well known in the boat industry to provide, for example, combination seating/storage or seating/bed apparatus and which make efficient use of the limited space available aboard boats. In seating/storage apparatus, a separable lid is placed over a container. The lid serves both as a top for the container and as a seat for a passenger. The lid is often upholstered to improve the aesthetic appearance of the apparatus and increase comfort for the passenger. The lid may also be hinged to allow the lid to pivot about an edge and ultimately rest against a backrest of the seating/storage apparatus.
Fishing boats often have a limited amount of open space in which the fisherman is free to move from port to starboard and stern to bow while fishing. As described above, each seat provided around the deck of the boat may include a storage area provided beneath a seat surface. Moreover, each seat may be a stationary and closed structure formed integrally with the deck and the bulkhead. While conventional seat structures serve useful purposes, they often times interfere with a fisherman""s ability to move about quickly from one position to another while fishing. It is particularly undesirable to have a permanent seat fixed in its sitting position with the horizontal part of the seat coming out from the bulkhead because it takes up too much room. Therefore, in order to provide a seat in a limited amount of space, while making it big enough to sit on, the seat ordinarily does not have a backrest. If the seat is made low enough to sit on, the seat width gets too short. Thus, the present invention recognizes that the ideal seat needs to be able to be stowed against the boat bulkhead and be big enough in both its back and seat portion to be comfortable for the user.
While it has been known to provide seats on a boat which can be folded out to provide a bench-like seat, such fold-out, bench-type seats of conventional construction lack the many advantages of the present invention as set forth below.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art of fishing boat manufacture for a seating apparatus which when not being used is adapted to be stowed in a manner to provide a maximum amount of deck space for fishing activities.
There is a further need for an improved seating apparatus which when placed in either its stowed or seating position tends to maintain and not inadvertently move out of such position.
With the above in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fold-out, bench-type boat seat that is economical to manufacture, simple to operate, and is aesthetically pleasing to the boat user.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a fold-out, bench-type boat seat that, when not needed for seating, may be folded into a stowed position and made to reside fixed against the bulkhead of the boat out of the fisherman""s way.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a fold-out, bench-type boat seat that both preserves storage space within the bulkhead and yet makes accessible any space behind the seat locations where there might be, for example, a storage compartment, thus solving a significant problem and a need of the boat industry.
Also, an object of the present invention is to provide a fold-out, bench-type boat seat assembly whose seat unit is removable so one can easily detach the seat unit from the boat and leave it at the dock if so desired.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.
The present invention provides a fold-out, bench-type seat assembly that is attached to a support structure illustrated as comprising the bulkhead of a passenger carrying boat. The seat comprises two sections: a back support that is fixedly attached to the bulkhead, and a seat unit detachably mounted in a pair of laterally spaced vertical slide blocks fixedly attached to the bulkhead and movable from a vertical stowed position against the boat bulkhead to a horizontal seating position.
The present invention and its features and advantages will be more fully understood, and further features and advantages will become apparent, when reference is made to the following detailed description of the invention, including the drawings, and the claims.